Measured in Love
by knick-knack-15
Summary: AU. Meet Troy, the new guy in town. The one that is taken advantage of and is suddenly falling for the girl he's not supposed to, the girl everyone wants to be, Sharpay Evans. This is the story of what happens when a tiny wager turns into full blown love.
1. Trailer

**Okay, I've got SO much going on right now, don't even begin to THINK that I'll be purging updates with this story. I really won't, it's just that I don't want my idea to be stolen, because I've already seen plots pretty close to this one.**

**Bold is the narrarator's voice**

_Italics are the character's actions_

**Okay... on with it, then!**

_Relient K's "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" plays..._

**The lucky bastard...**

**The All-Star...**

**East High's King...**

_Troy leads his following people down an East High corridor. This is the life he's used to, the life he didn't deserve._

**But he's nothing but the new kid...**

_"I'm Chad." The boy sitting in front of him turns around and introduces himself. "God, you've been here for like, ten seconds, and you've already gotten all of the girls interested." he breaks into a smile._

**...The one that doesn't know how to handle the reins...**

_"That... that is Sharpay Evans." Chad smiles across the cafeteria at her. "She... she's such a..." Chad stumbles for the right word to fit such a magnificent profile._

_"Goddess?" Zeke adds._

_"Poetic, majestic, unearthly creature?" Jason questions._

_"Exactly."_

**...The one that falls into a shit-load of trouble...**

_Chad shrugs. "I don't know, Troy... you got all of those other girls to stare at you. Would Sharpay be such a challenge?" Troy lets his new friend's words sink in as he looks across the cafeteria at her as well. Almost as if he telepathically told her to, she looks away from her brother and straight to him. Troy gives his dazzling smile before she shyly tucks a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear and looks away again._

_"How do you do it?" Jason is in absolute awe of the new guy's magic touch._

**...before he even realizes it.**

_"She's untouchable, Troy." Chad warns. "Don't make a fool of yourself!" Chad shouts after him as he approaches Sharpay's locker._

**So what happens when reality twists...**

_"It's a deal then." Troy smirks as he and Chad shake hands. "I get Sharpay before the semester ends, then I get I place on the team."_

_"Deal." Chad finishes._

**... and the unexpected happens?**

_"You wouldn't slap me and call me a jerk if I..." Troy is hushed by Sharpay's finger at his lips. As she draws closer to him, the wager, his friends, the team... they all melt away from their oasis. The only two things that exist are them..._

_"Shut up..." Sharpay whispers to him as she lowers her finger. The picture fades as they become tangled up in each other..._

**Alliances will be broken...**

_"How could you let this happen?" Heads turn as Chad's body violently collides with a locker. Troy tightens the grip on Chad's shoulders and the fear in Chad's eyes is unmistakeable. "You were supposed to be my friend."_

**Walls of trust will crumble...**

_"Hold on, Sharpay..." Troy grabs her by the wrist before she tries to escape. "Please... tell me what's wrong." Tears spill over her eyelids and she purses her lips in disappointment. She struggles against his hold._

_"Troy, let go of me." she says calmly. Though he doesn't want to, he unconsciously loosens his grip on the girl he fell in love with... even though it wasn't real. "We can't... I can't do this anymore. You humiliated me, Troy."_

_And the shame that thunders down on him is what makes him cry as well._

**And what was supposed to be love...**

_"You wouldn't slap me and call me a jerk if I told you I loved you... would you?" The smile forming on Troy's lips is what sends an indescribable feeling rippling through Sharpay. And she isn't used to this feeling..._

_This feeling of love._

**Is actually nothing but a game.**

_"You're not the same person anymore, Troy!" Chad shouts as he pushes his former friend away from him. "And you're the only person that hasn't realized it."_

_"But you're the one to blame! You're the one that..." Troy is cut off by Chad._

_"Welcome to East High, you lucky bastard." Chad's words sting as he walks away. And this is where Troy realizes that there is absolutely no one left. That he really has changed._

**Zac Efron**

_Troy nervously steps through the front doors of East High. A new school. New drama. New scandals just waiting to be cracked open._

**Ashley Tisdale**

_Candelight catches her eyes on Troy's she shyly rests her forearms on the table and grins stupidly. This always happens when she's with him..._

**Love becomes a reality for them in...**

_Sharpay's eyebrows wrinkle in confusion. She leans a little farther out of her window. "Troy... what are you doing?" she asks the sight of her boyfriend sitting in the middle of the stretch of Sharpay's backyard. "Can we talk about this later?"_

_"No."_

**Measured in Love**

_"There's so much we need to talk about, Sharpay..." he watches as her face softens. "So much..."_

**00/00/00?**

_"Are you really going to go on a date with that loser?" Ryan whispers to his sister. "Come on, Sharpay, he's the new kid." He follows Sharpay's gaze to Troy walking down the hallway in confidence._

_Sharpay shrugs and considers her decision. "But he's got a cute butt..." she states before she walks in the opposite direction._

_The picture pans in on Ryan's horrified and disgusted expression. "Ew."_

**Sooooo... like I said DO NOT expect any kind of update any time soon. But a whole bunch of reviews will encourage me to start...**


	2. Chapter 1

**So. **

**Hey.**

_Someone once told me that high school never ended. That no matter how many places you move to, how many schools you experience, high school will be eternal._

_Well, they were right._

_The jocks, the emos, the sluts, they were all still there. It was no different. But why, in the midst of this mass hysteria, did this school seem significant in some way?_

_I shook off me unconnecting, tanlged thoughts as the main doors of East High School seemed to open by themselves. To the rest of the student body, it was just another useless Monday, but to the new guy, it's always a new opportunity, drama and scandals just waiting to be unfolded. __A few brave smiles were aimed in my direction, but all I was focused on was finding my next classroom. The crowds began to thin out as the bell rang._

_And I was suddenly thrown into the new school day, completely unaware. And completely lost._

_Nervously, I clenched and unclenched my fists at the sight of the bland wooden door that was my homeroom. Timidly, I pushed it open, and at the screaming silence of the door, numerous pairs of eyes suddenly examined me. Opinions formed. My place on the social ladder was being established. "Troy Bolton?" My homeroom teacher inspected me over the tops of her oversized bifocals. Her expression held arrogance as I nodded and she pointed to an epmty seat towards the back of the classroom._

_The desk gave an unwelcoming groan as I put my weight into it, and a few immature snickers ensued. As soon as I sat down, the guy in fron of me turned around in his seat. He held my gaze with no emotion. "You lucky bastard." he stated simply and quietly. I searched his brown eyes for any existence of humor, but he was cold. "God, you've been here for like, ten seconds, and you've gotten all of the girls interested."_

_I hesitantly observed the population of the classroom, noticing a few eyes lingering on me, a few shy smiles, more shit-eating grins, and an abnormal amount of female attention. So _this _is what it felt like to be 'checked out'? I had always thought of myself as okay-looking (**Holy shit, go read my author's note.) **but this was beyond._

_"I... uh..." I was hung up on words as to why this guy was having a casual conversation with me. Casual on his part, unorganized and panicked on mine._

_He ran a hand through his frizzy, dominating hair and broke into a smile. His bright smile was prominent against his darker skin complexion. "I'm Chad." he introduced himself._

_"Troy." was all I was able to get out before our evil homeroom teacher demanded our attention again. We spat out apologies before Chad slowly turned back around in his seat. a noticeable red-and-white 'East High Basketball' logo was splayed across the back of his hoodie, and I immediately cursed myself for letting a stereotype influence my opinion on Chad, who already seemed pretty nice._

_Stereotypes shouldn't have mattered to me when it came to making new friends in this new environment. And it didn't, no matter what the rest of my peers were going to tell me._

_Hopefully._

_"You coming?" So wrapped up in thought, I never heard a bell ring, or the sound of scraping chairs, snapping binders, and exhausted students. Chad shaking my shoulder was distant. "I want you to meet the guys."_

_The guys? Already, I was being pulled into the never-ending flow of peer pressure and statuses that were East High School. And subconsciously, future-reference-speaking, I realized that in the midst of this mass hysteria, the school year felt somehow significant because of one person._

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

_A huge number of backs were turned to me, every one of them tucked away into their own circles, their own forms of safety. It was a social battlefield, a worst nightmare to every new kid, and even though the place I would plant my ass in the nex ten seconds would seal my reputation for good, it didn't bother me as much as it was supposed to._

_Why?_

_Because of a significant other who will be explained later._

_"Hey, Troy!" As much as it surprised me to know that someone in East High knew my name, I turned toward the somewhat familiar voice, gripping my bagged lunch tighter in my fist. As students pushed past me, desperate to reconnect with their cliques, Chad's unmistakable haircut and hoodie waved me over to a lunch table._

_Step-by-step, slowly, carefully, the soles of my sneakers made contact with the white tiles of the East High cafeteria floor with caution. It wasn't completely out of my nature to wipeout by tripping on thin air, and it was too early in the school day to embarrass myself._

_Red-and-white pom poms were scattered across the tabletop. Their atmosphere had an essence of _poise _and _popularity _to it. The flawless faces that either gawked or smiled at me were just as intimidating. I took in a deep breath. "Hey."_

_"You looked like such a loser standing at the doors by yourself." Chad and a couple of his friends laughed and I politely joined. So here I was, standing awkwardly in front of potential friends with my hands stuffed clumsily in my pockets as these revered, admired, _beautiful_ people observed me and my 'okay looks'. At this point, I was socially safe if I was laughing with them instead of being laughed at when I wasn't around._

_I was soon sitting across from a tangle of blonde highlights, giggles, whispers, and exaggerated sunny dispositions._ Sports Illustrated_, laughter, crude jokes, and lofty glances. _This _was my glimpse into the world everyone wanted to be a part of. Terms such as, "Are you single?" and "We should get together sometime" from cheerleaders became instantly overused. I sighed as Chad and the rest of his admired circle of friends turned envying heads and rested my chin in my hands. My eyes wandered across the cafeteria, falling on familiar distinct social groups. Abundant jocks, sluts, emos..._

_And then _her. 

_Someone once told me that there was no such thing as love at first sight, That it could have been considered _lust _or a severe infatuation, but it was quite impossible to lose your heart to someone in a matter of seconds._

_Well, they were wrong._

_The afternoon sunlight overcame the cafeteria's balcony, kissing her blonde head sweetly, making her look as angelic as one could while eating an energy bar and reading a script. Her focused brown eyes moved along the dialouge and tiny smiles tugged at her lips at certain parts. So maybe it wasn't _love_ at this point, but it was something severely close to it..._

_"...right, Troy?" Chad's interrogative voice grew strong again and I was aware of it, but was far too busy getting lost in the girl across the cafeteria. His gaze followed mine and from the corner of my eye, I caught Chad muster up a soft smile. "That... that is Sharpay Evans." Even at the sound of her name, the pesky cheerleaders sitting across from me gave annoyed groans. A few left the table most likely sick and tired of the praise Sharpay was recieving._

_"She... she's such a..." Chad stumbled for the right words to fit such a magnificent profile. But his friends interjected._

_"Goddess?" Zeke offered._

_"Poetic, majestic, unearthly creatre?" Jason questioned._

_Knowing that his vocabulary couldn't expand past that, Chad only agreed. "Exactly."_

_From there, the red-and-white mass hysteria became forgotten. What East High School really had to offer sat only a few yards away, changing the new kid's perspective on how high school life was supposed to be used._

**That was dreaful to write.**

**What was really hard was entering the mindset of a hot guy. Do they think of themselves as good-looking? Are they mellow about being hot? I. DON'T. KNOW. So that entire 'I always thought of myself as okay-looking' statement was so like a girl.**

**Guys are so simple, yet so complicated.**

**Stick with me, this chapter was utterly difficult to write. Beginnings are always hard, but it will. get. better. I've already written the chapter that's the climax?**

**Damn.**

**It'll be worth it.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Freaking THANKS for all of your reviews!**

**You know, there was one that really stood out, from LovinLife4ever.**

**Those were some pretty wise words, about being inside the mind of a hot guy. Wise enough to actually use later on in the story.**

**Hmm...**

**I don't know, you really got me going... In a good way, I mean.**

**So everyone! Gather round as I stumble into this, totally and completely blind as to what courses through the average teenage male mind!**

"Sharpay Evans," Chad said the name again to bring its sweet taste back to his mouth. There was something about that girl, besides her amazingly good looks that made everyone obligated to like her.

"What I'd give to get a piece of that." Jason shook his head in a mix of envy and longing. Every remaining cheerleader that had been hanging off of the table had disappeared, to Troy's pleasure. He was much more interested in hearing what his potential friends had to say about the girl that sat across the cafeteria.

"She... I don't know how to explain it... but she knows everyone. Everyone knows her, yet..." Chad stirred for words. "I don't know," he resigned. "You'd just have to get to know her to understand her."

Would that be so difficult?, Troy mused. They spoke of Sharpay like she was a reincarnated Juliet or Cleopatra or something. He liked it. "Is that her..." Troy jutted his chin in the direction of the blonde boy sitting next to her at their empty cafeteria table. He had small features and seemed fragile. "Her boyfriend?"

Zeke, Jason, and Chad burst into a fit of laughter. "Ryan?" Jason howled. "That's her twin brother! Not to mention, King of the Fags!" Another round of hysterics made the table rumble and made heads turn to look on us with curiosity. "I think he's the only guy in the school that isn't into some kind of sport."

Did this make him _wrong?_, Troy wondered. Status seemed to be a huge deal at East High School, he concluded. Girls cheerlead and flirt. Guys play sports and grunt incoherent things. Troy turned away from Sharpay for the first time since the beginning of lunch, not being able to look at her any longer. Her perfection made his eyelids burn.

"You play a sport, right, Troy?" Chad asked.

He nearly choked on the remainder of my lunch at the question.

"Yeah, where are you from anyway?" Jason questioned.

The white expanse of the cafeteria seemed to shrink around him. The past. They were bringing up his past and he _didn't _feel like going there. He had buried his history for a reason...

"Troy!"

A gust of relief escaped through his nostrils and he turned toward the sound of his name. A man stood at the main doors of the cafeteria, frantically waving his arms, drawing more attention to himself than needed. Sure, it was Troy's father, but at least he had been saved from the incrimination.

"Hey, I know that guy," Troy heard Chad say over his shoulders. "Isn't that-"

"I guess I'll catch you later, guys," Troy mumbled before hastily gathering his things and pushing his dad out of the cafeteria doors.

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Two hands forcefully pushed Troy down into a chair. He could have sworn he heard the cover of his cell phone shatter under his weight and his iPod crack in half, all thanks to his father's over-excitement. "So?" his brown eyes were hopeful. "How's the school day been?"

Troy looked everywhere but into his father's eyes, not knowing how to explain to him that in a span of four hours he had become abundantly popular, thanks to his dashing looks, and had fallen in love... or something rather close. So he shrugged. He shrugged helplessly and continued to avoid his father's gaze by jumping out of the seat and examining his father's office. "So what's the gym teacher gig like?"

As Troy's father rattled on about how great it felt to teach again, he fished around in the back pockets of his low-slung jeans, his fingers coming in contact with two of his most prized possessions, now broken, ruined. He flipped his iPod over in his palm, the click wheel dislodging into his hand, the metallic silver finish crumbling to pieces. He groaned inwardly, knowing that his father was clueless to the damage he had done.

"...offering me the job of assistant coach of the basketball team. If you're interested, I could get you a place on the team... Troy?...Troy?..._Troy!_"

He instantly dropped the remains of his iPod back into his pocket and sighed. "_No_, Dad, I don't want to play basketball." he instantly remembered the red-and-white logo that played across the back of Chad's hoodie. He remembered the thick smell of envy that clouded every single person that wasn't a basketball player or a cheerleader in the cafeteria. Did he really want to be a part of that?

His father pressed. "Come on, Troy, you played ball last year... what happened?"

"The championships happened, Dad." Troy snapped, and left it at that. He refused to travel that far back in time. He refused to remember the details of that day, part of the reason why he was so happy to leave, to start over.

An anonymous bell rang. Troy bounded out the door, desperate to escape his father's questions and his blast-from-the-past spew. He ambled out into the filing hallway to find his next class, but was instantly caught up in the overwhelming crowds of high school.

He was bumped into, bashed into, brushed by, brushed off... and was that a grope?...

"Sorry, Troy." A half-hearted apology was thrown in his direction as a cheerleader recollected herself after bumping into him. Thought it seemed like she had plastered her body on his on purpose, he smiled anyway. What else could he do?

"...Troy? That's his name?"

"...Sexy."

"...I second that..."

"...probably going to end up with _Sharpay_..."

Sharpay. He had heard that name before, he could have sworn. Hearing it again sent an unfamiliar bolt of electricity through his fingertips as he fumbled with his combination. Snatches of conversation caught his attention as he tried his hardest to open his new locker. The after-lunch crowds came heavier as students slowly shifted to new classes. But as the hallways filled, so did the news spread about the new guy.

Was it simply because he was _new? _Was it really his good looks? Why did a new student matter so much in such a huge, diverse school?

"...God, what makes Sharpay Evans so special?"

"Probably the fact that she's impossibly gorgeous and perfect in every way."

As he mindlessly stared into his empty locker and listened to the conversation from a circle of girls a few lockers away, I came to realize that they were right. If they were speaking of the blonde girl he had seen in the cafeteria that day, then they were most _definitely _right.

"Shhh... here she comes."

They fell silent.

He listened closely to any clue of her appearance, but almost gave up until he saw her from the corner of his eye, opening her locker just a yard down the hall. As corny as it sounded, time _did _stop when she looked into the reflection of the mirror on her locker door. She delicately ran her fingers through her blonde hair, every strand falling in perfect place. Her eyes searched her reflection before falling on him.

It _seemed _like time had stopped, or maybe it was the emptying hallways and closing classroom doors that gave the sense of falling through some rare, frozen time continuum.

Troy was wrapped.

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Yeah, Sharpay Evans had seen him.

Yeah, Sharpay Evans thought he was cute, but that's where her thoughts on this Troy guy came to an abrupt halt.

The information she had on him was scarce, yet glancing at him through the reflection of the mirror in her locker, he looked like a pretty nice guy...

"Don't even _think _about it."

Sharpay jumped at the appearance of her brother in her mirror. His mouth was turned in his notorious frown and the fedora on his head cast an angry shadow over his normally vibrant brown eyes. "Ry, you scared the living shit out of me," she said.

"I know what you're thinking," he hissed. "Just _don't_."

"Little innocent _me? _Why, what on _earth _are you talking about?"

"That new guy? No. No a million times over."

"Ryan, I'm getting books from my locker, _not _setting up an elaborate plan to get in the boy's pants. Give your twin a little credit."

Ryan Evans sighed and rolled his eyes. His sister had always been optimistic and playful, leaving _him _to be the grouchy responsible one. "Shar, I'm just looking out for you," he offered. "After everything that's happened-"

The metal slam of her locker shutting cut him off. The past. He was bringing up the past and she _didn't _feel like going there. Troy and the group of gossiping girls that assumed that Sharpay was deaf had disappeared. The hallways were empty, indicating that she was late for class. "Fine, you win," she said. "I'll stay away from him." With that, she turned in the opposite direction and hastened away, a small smile adorning her features.

Hehe.

She had her fingers crossed.

**Okay.**

**If my iPod ever broke, I would cry, just so you know.**

**You KNOW you would too.**

**Review.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Duuuude.**

**Thanks for all of your awesome reviews!**

**Like really? They are a source of nutrition.**

**Read!**

**SHARPAY EVANS IS A WHORE**

was tatooed across her cheek. As Sharpay touched up her cheek tint and fiddled with her blonde waves in the bathroom mirror, five permanent-markered words appeared on her right cheek. She didn't feel like calling a custodian to scrape the bathroom mirror of the message and she didn't feel like sulking about it.

So she pulled mascara out of her bag and touched up her eyelashes that didn't need to be touched up.

She had witnessed much worse.

**SHARPAY EVANS FUCKS HER WAY TO THE TOP**

and

**SHARPAY BEGGED TO SWALLOW PERDUE**

were her personal favorites, but had been Windexed away ages ago. As she sighed at her reflection, an unsatisfied feeling settled over her skin. _Jealous,_ Sharpay, she found in her thoughts. They are all just _jealous _of Sharpay Evans. Part of her had broken and spilled under the negative energy that was channeled in her direction. But another part of her just didn't _care._ Another part of her merely adjusted her precious lavender beret over her wavy hair and checked for lint on her violet blouse with a hard stare.

Thoughful minutes ticked by and ricached off of the bare walls of the bathroom. There was Sharpay in the mirror. There was Sharpay Evans in the mirror with a flawless face and a true message etched across her cheekbone. She _was _a whore, she felt. The silence grew and the thoughts reproduced and the reality attacked.

She was numb.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated deep within her purse strangled with cosmetics, loose licorice sticks, and silly little notes she found in her locker every once in a while. A text message from Ryan was the last thing Sharpay desired at the moment.

_where are u? class started 5 mins. ago_

She understood that her brother's intentions were only good. But Sharpay wouldn't mind if her brother wasn't always on her back, jamming words of advice down her throat and hammering her mind with responsibilities. She needed help. They had figured that out long ago. But smothering wasn't the answer.

The silence choked her and she closed her cellphone, dumping all of her possessions back into her bag.

**SHARPAY EVANS IS A WHORE**

disappeared and a new sort of beginning was initated somehow. She jutted her feminine chin upwards as she pushed on the bathroom door and emerged into the sunlight that knocked on the sunroofs of East High School. There was something about being alone in these hallways. She loved being alone. She loved being alone in a place where she was so _loved _and _hated _at the same time.

But the small world she had become accustomed to hazed away at the sound of frantic sneakers on the white tiles of the hallway. A lean athletic build and an ambush of messy brown hair suddenly swerved around the corridor's corner, a mere distance from where Sharpay stood.

Down the hallway, Troy froze in his tracks. It wasn't his imagination. He really had lucked out. He took a sharp breath in his nose and it exited through his slightly parted mouth. A starry-eyed Sharpay Evans stared right back at him, the beams of the sun washing out her golden tendrils completely. She was crisp kernels of popcorn dripping with golden butter, she was a honeyed yolk, sizzling a secret over flame. And he wondered why his thoughts were piecing tgoether as if he were fucking Shakespeare.

"Hey," she said.

He whipped his head around. No one to his left, no one to his right. Could she have possibly been talking to...

"Me?" he said incredulously.

She chuckled a trademark chuckle. Choked with a well-known secret and a hint of sarcasm. "Who else would I be talking to?" There was a sincerity tucked into her smile that made Troy fumble for words and stuff his hands in his pocket.

"Hi!" he said. He immediately wished he could snatch his words from the air and throw them away. He had sounded a little _too _excited and a tad _too _eager to be speaking with _the _Sharpay Evans. A heat spread from his neck and creeped onto his cheeks. She giggled again.

"Are you lost?"

Troy gulped. If he said yes, he would cave to the image of a being a young adult who still needed to hold his mother's hand while crossing the street. But if he said no, he would be left to wander the empty hallways of East High for another twenty minutes. Either way, he was faced with humiliation. So he shrugged and pulled his rumpled schedule out of his back pocket.

"Uh, I think so. Do you have any idea where Mr. Matthew's fifth period trig is?"

"Lucky for you, that is the exact class I was planning on skipping. Follow me."

Troy liked her laid-back, but forceful attitude. He scrambled to catch up with her. "You skip class often?" he was soon walking in stride with her and he was looking at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. She had porcelain skin and a soft nose in the middle of her flawless face. Her eyes swirled with milk chocolate and were framed with long feminine lashes.

"Only when I feel like it," she explained nonchalantly.

"And the teacher doesn't notice?" they swung around another corner.

"They love me too much to notice." she shrugged and smiled her perfect smile. "Everybody loves me."

Troy wasn't sure if he had detected cockiness or bitterness in her voice. But they were soon standing in front of an unopened door and she was edging her hand onto the doorknob.

"Me skipping class is our little secret. Agreed?"

He nodded dumbly, his mouth dry of a witty response. "Our little secret," he said. He was thrilled at the idea of having a connection-a very insignificant connection, but a connection, nonetheless-to Sharpay Evans. They were sharing something that no one else was permitted to know. He felt somewhat special.

"Oh, by the way," she added. The door cracked an inch and she proceeded to enter. "I'm Sharpay." she giggled at her own ignorance before stepping into the classroom.

"I know," he said to no one but himself.

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His first day at East High School dragged along into his first week. The days piled together, turning into an uncomprehendable mess of dirty jokes from Chad and knowing smiles in the hallway from Sharpay. He began to hear his name a bit more frequently in the hallways, and another name followed close behind in those hushed pieces of gossip..._Sharpay_...

"Dude! When were you going to tell us that Caoch Bolton is your father?"

Suddenly, Chad, Jason and Zeke were slumping into cafeteria seats across from him at the table. They all wore the coveted East High Basketball sweatshirts and they all accessorized with 'Yeah, I'm A Cool Guy' smiles.

"Yeah, I'm also hearing things about you and Sharpay. Something about being caught coming out of the bathroom together...?" Zeke chimed.

One would think that the gossip would dwindle and the rumor mill would turn slower after being part of the student body for a week. But for some reason beyond their comprehension, Troy Bolton just wouldn't disappear. He grinned a sheepish grin and shrugged.

"Something like that," he said and found his eyes turning upward. Up, way up, towards the cafeteria balcony. Back to Sharpay. Back to the root of the rumors. She was engaged in a light conversation with her brother and took no notice to his incessant staring. "Hey," he mused. "Why do you think she only sits with her brother?"

Chad's mouth turned into a perplexed frown. "Who knows, man? At the beginning of last year, she was cheerleader. Then..."

"Then what?" Troy was too quick to ask. Too eager to know. The fact that he was being an overzealous freak who didn't deserve popular friends crossed his mind.

Chad shrugged. "I don't know what. But anyway, back to the subject of Coach Bolton being your father..."

Things changed, that's what.

Chad Danforth wasn't aware of all that had happened to Sharpay Evans during junior year, but _things changed_. People were injected into her life that stole its color. Disatrous events took over her vibrance, dominated the girl they all knew. And somehow, she still emerged from it as Sharpay Evans.

She was admirable. She was beautiful. She was broken, and all but few knew it.

And three jocks and one unsuspecting, but handsome soon-to-be asshole sat around a cafeteria table, unaware of the damage that they were about to do.

**That's it. Thanks for reading.**

**But can I ask a small favor of you?**

**Go read **_**Embrace Every Moment.**_** It really sucks to see all of those people alerting and favoriting it, but the alert-review ratio is quite off. Review, please.**

**Tell me I suck. Tell me I'm awesome. Tell me something in-between.**

**Please?**


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